Expérience subjective du rapport aux soins pédopsychiatriques chez des adolescents franco-algériens : une perspective individuelle, et historique

Abstract

IntroductionAlgerian-French adolescents, whether they are aware of it or not, carry an unfinished past, the consequences of History. Those can have an impact on their self-projection into the future, as well as in the clinic itself. The aim of this study is to explore the subjective experience of child psychiatric care for Algerian-French adolescents, from an individual and historical perspective. MethodsThe study was qualitative, phenomenological, and inductive. Adolescents with Algerian ancestry were recruited from two child psychiatry services. Semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analyzed through the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. ResultsThe seven adolescents included in the study expressed an internal experience of shame and guilt concerning mental disorders and evoked parental reluctance to hospitalize their children and their fear of deprivation of their rights. The taboo of psychiatric illness, which was occasionally mentioned, is part of an Algerian cultural identity, while religion was rather seen as a support in the troubles and the construction of the identity-related experience. DiscussionThe results underline the importance of History in the intrapsychic experience and the fragility these adolescents presented in their relationship to child psychiatry. The hypotheses are that there could be a collective traumatic transmission of the episodes of imprisonment of Algerians by the French, and that the partial absence of psychiatric care in their imagination could be linked to a defensive rejection of care structures in the colonial period. ConclusionsAll of this has allowed us to highlight the need for a greater awareness of the medical environment in order to help these adolescents to appropriate and transcend the violence inherent to their history.